SOUTH KOREA
How they qualified Not particularly convincingly. South Korea came second in Group A of the third round of the Asian section, behind Iran, but failed to score in four of their five away games and won none. They advanced because they only dropped two points at home.
Manager Shin Tae-yong. Took over from the sacked Uli Stielike last June and drew the two remaining qualifiers 0-0. He has changed the formation to 4-4-2. He is a former South Korea Under 23 and U20 manager and won the Asian Champions League in 2010 with Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, leading to him to dub himself the “Asian Special One”.
Player to watch Son Heung-min. An obvious choice but the likeliest match-winner. He scored in the 2014 World Cup as a 21 year old and, after 39 goals in his last two seasons for Tottenham Hotspur, has reached another level since then, even if there are concerns that he performs better for his club than his country.
Talking point Can they do better than in 2014? The last World Cup was South Korea’s worst since 1998. They only took one point from a pool where they had looked possible qualifiers: going 3-0 down in the first half against Algeria was both surprising and costly, but they also lost to a weakened, 10-man Belgium side. Their undistinguished form in qualifying does not look auspicious. Nor do friendly defeats to Northern Ireland and Poland, though wins over Colombia and Japan in the past year offer more encouragement. Much depends on how quickly Shin can make an impact.
Prediction A lowly world ranking (61 in May) suggests South Korea are the outsiders. Few would tip them to emulate the semi-finalists of 2002 and reaching the last 16 would represent a welcome achievement. With Germany their final group-game opponents, they may need to get the points required in the first two matches or to hope that the reigning champions have already qualified. But then Germany were able to omit their premier players and still won last season’s Confederations Cup. South Korea need a strong start against Sweden and Mexico, but their defence presents a worry, particularly at set-pieces.